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Wednesday, December 18, 2013

Center Stephen Gionta will return to the Devils' lineup tonight against Ottawa after missing the last 11 games with a sprained right ankle and left wing Ryane Clowe might not be far behind.

Clowe, who has not played since Oct. 13 because of a concussion caused by an elbow to the head from Winnipeg's Jacob Trouba, still hasn't talked to the coaching staff to chart out a timetable for his return, but said today he thinks it's possible he'll play in Friday's home game against Anaheim.

"To be honest with you, I still haven't talked to anyone," Clowe said after skating hard again following today's optional morning skate. "I don't know because today's a game day if I'll talk to anyone, but I think I could possibly play Friday. That doesn't mean I'm going to. But, I feel pretty good. I feel like I'm probably ready to go play now. I don't know if I will or when I will, but I just feel like I'm at a point now where I'm really close or if not right there."

Clowe said he's had no setbacks during a hard week of work since he was cleared medically to participate in full practices and play in games. Getting in full practices Monday and Tuesday was particularly helpful.

"It's been good," Clowe said. "It's been a couple real hard skates before I stepped back on the ice with the team in practice, which was nice. I had a couple good practices, full practices where they weren't short. They were after a day off and I had some defensive-zone coverage work, some physical battles, some one-on-one stuff, stuff that I wanted to do. Then, obviously a (morning) skate today. So, it's probably been a straight week of pretty well hard skating now and I feel good besides a little bit of fatigue. Everything's been going forward."

Clowe is close enough now that he's getting excited about the idea of returning to the lineup, but is also trying to keep his emotions in check.

"I've been excited a couple of times and been let down, so, as much as I can get excited, I am," he said. "Once I know that I'm in or once I know that game that I'm going to be back, I'll be real excited. I think that not playing for a while, getting back in, hopefully, before Christmas and getting another three days off (during the Christmas break) might be beneficial just because I haven't played in a while. So, I'm really excited."

Just being around his teammates again after being out for so long has Clowe in a good mood. He says he's been joining in on Jaromir Jagr's near constant ribbing of Dainius Zubrus, who sits next to him in both the game and practice locker rooms.

"I've been coming in with a big smile on my face because I'm back around the guys again and I get to joke around and I get to jump on the bandwagon with Jags and chirp Zubie," Clowe said. "It's been great. ... It's been great to be back. Like anyone who misses time or anyone who retires from the game, that's what they say they miss the most is being in the locker room around the guys."

***With Gionta returning and center Andrei Loktionov coming back into the lineup after being a healthy scratch the last two games, Tim Sestito and Jacob Josefson will come out as healthy scratches tonight. Left wing Mattias Tedenby will also be a healthy scratch.

"It will be nice to be back," Gionta said. "I'll try to keep it simple at the start, get my legs under me."

Gionta will return to his usual spot as the fourth line center. Tonight he'll play with Steve Bernier and Cam Janssen on his wings.

Gionta said if feels like a long time since he last played on Nov. 23 in San Jose.

"It's about three and a half weeks," Gionta said. "It's definitely a long time and from the start I'll try to keep it simple and go from there."

After years of fighting to establish himself as an NHL regular, Gionta acknowledged there's an uneasiness he felt that someone would take his spot in the lineup while he was out.

"There's always that concern because you're out of the lineup, you can't control what happens and there's always that concern that someone's going to come up from behind and take your spot," Gionta admitted. "It's not just when there's an injury. When you're healthy too, you always have that uncertainty."

***Janssen will play tonight after banging his right kneecap into the boards when he fell in a one-on-one situation against defenseman Anton Volchenkov during Tuesday's practice.

"We were just doing those one-on-ones and I got a pretty good amount of speed going and I think (Volchenkov) kind of stepped up on me and I kind of got tripped up," Jansse explained., "I fell directly into the boards and my shinpad slid down so my kneecap hit directly on the boards and that was excruciating pain to the point where I was getting dizzy. But that's all it is. I don't usually leave practice too often. I tried to skate on it and at that point I just couldn't."

Fortunately, it turned out to be what Janssen called, "just a deep, deep bruise" and after getting some treatment Tuesday and again this morning, his knee felt much better.

"I just iced it and did what I had to do and woke up this morning, got out of bed and walked around and felt pretty good," Janssen said. "You don't know until you skate, so we did some treatment here with the trainers and I went out there and I was flying."

Janssen admitted he "absolutely thought there was no way" he would play tonight when he first was hurt during Tuesday's practice.

"I always try to think positively in every aspect, but I was like 'uh-oh.'" he said. "It was scary. I hit really hard. But it was swollen up and I put some new pads on my shinguards and feel great."

Janssen said his knee is "still swollen and very tender", but he feels fine skating.

***That Janssen is staying in the lineup as some injured players are starting to come back is due to the way he’s been able to make the most of the limited minutes he plays, DeBoer said.

“He’s been great,” Devils coach Pete DeBoer said. “You look at our record with him in. I like how he’s been defensively. I think he’s allowed me to play him, which has allowed him to be effective. I think he’s only been in one fight, but he’s been hard on the forecheck, he’s knocked two or three guys out with big hits, he’s been defensively responsible and he gives us some energy in our room that no doubt adds a little bit of size to all of our players when he’s in the lineup.”

Janssen is averaging just 4:52 in ice time per night over the 19 games he’s played, but has chipped in three goals. DeBoer noted that Janssen did produce some offensively in junior. He had five goals and 22 points (plus 288 penalty minutes) in 64 OHL games with Windsor in 2001-02 – the Devils drafted him in the fourth round after that season.

“I remember Cam in junior and Cam had a pretty good skill level for a junior hockey player,” DeBoer said. “I think he scored 20 (points) one year at least. I think if you play in the NHL, regardless of what position you’re in you have a high skill level. It might not translate at this level every night, but even the fourth line tough guys have a good skill level.”

About

TOM GULITTI has covered the New Jersey Devils for The Record since 2002. Prior to that, he covered the New York Rangers for four years. Gulitti joined The Record in 1998 after six years at The North Jersey Herald News. He graduated from Binghamton University in 1991 with a Bachelor of Arts in Rhetoric-Literature.